The best music festival you’ll ever attend is also the most affordable: just drive, fly or hitchhike your way to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the 10th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on October 1-3 and you’ll get your choice of 80 or so top-notch roots-related acts on six different stages… for free.

The event is put on by billionaire investment banker and bluegrass nut Warren Hellman, who foots the bill every year as his gift to music fans in the city, or pretty much anyone else who cares to take him up on the offer.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the announcement of this year’s line-up, and now most of the list is up at the event website. Here are the performers announced so far, with the ones I’m most excited about in bold.

Comments

WOW, how could I possibly pass up the opportunity to drive to “Sodom By The Sea” to attend a concert at the “Golden Gate Gomorrah Park” surrounded by tens of thousands of Obamavoters while artists are performing on six separate stages simultaneously?…(lol)

Ah, I see that Rick is back at it. I hadn’t seen any of his political trolling for awhile and kind of just assumed the site mediators (here, at the9513, etc.) had contacted him and told him to keep his comments relevant to the topic of country music. Oh, well. Even if they had, we should have known it wouldn’t have lasted very long.

Most of your bold selections are the same ones I’d love to go see, too. It’s nice to see Kelly Willis performing again, and the Avetts and Kane Welch Kaplin would be great shows too. Richard Thompson is way, way high up on my list of people I’d love to see in concert